Daily Articles

Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 2

by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 15, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Some backpackers said they preferred understated Hanoi to the raucous attack of venders, the capitalism in Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. I enjoyed the bartering, the drivers who surrounded and harangued me. Told that many hawkers would exaggerate tales of suffering to get a better price, I felt the ...

Freedom, Hope, and Fear: The Paradox of Vietnam, Part 1

by Rosalind Lacy MacLennan September 13, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the breakdown of Marxist state planning in 1985 and the introduction of free-market reforms in 1986, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has unleashed a tiger. Free enterprise will not be stopped. Capitalism is respected now for good reason. People are not starving. But police presence hovers. This ...

Another Perverse Consequence of the “War on Terrorism”

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2004

Sometimes the perverse consequences of federal government policies and programs are evident immediately and sometimes they take a bit longer. For example, at the end of World War I, statists, imperialists, and interventionists were in ecstasy over the U.S. intervention, proudly claiming that the loss of more than 100,000 American deaths was worth the ...

Swift Boat Censorship

by Anthony Gregory September 8, 2004

The recent hot topics of American politics — John Kerry’s service in the Vietnam War, whether he lied about it, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads claiming that he lied, and George Bush’s reaction to those ads — seem to have come right out of an alternate dimension. ...

Hearsay Convictions at Guantanamo

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 3, 2004

The Pentagon’s decision to admit hearsay evidence at its military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay flies in the face of one of the most important principles in the administration of criminal justice — the right to confront one’s accuser and cross-examine him in the presence of the jury. ...

The Bill of Rights: Antipathy to Militarism

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2004

The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” Obviously, the Third Amendment has little relevance today. But what is relevant for us today is the mindset that ...

When Force Masquerades as Social Science

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2004

Maybe desperation has me grasping at straws, but I am encouraged that people usually try to camouflage their advocacy of physical force against innocent people. It means they must be at least slightly embarrassed at favoring the threat of violence against those who have remained peaceful. That can signify only their at-least-dim awareness that the initiation of force is ...

Saddam as the Twentieth Hijacker

by James Bovard September 1, 2004

The 9/11 commission reported in June that there was no “collaborative relationship” between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and thus that Bush’s Enemy No. 1 had no role in the 9/11 attacks. Far from finding any partnership between the two, the report noted that bin Laden “at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists ...

The Endless War on Terrorism

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2004

It feels good when a public official, especially the president of the United States, speaks the truth, which is what happened on Monday when President George W. Bush uttered words that The Future of Freedom Foundation has been publishing ever since 9/11 — “I don’t think you can win .” Well, duh! ...

State-Run Schools: The New Caesaropapism

by Lawrence M. Ludlow September 1, 2004

After two and a half years of the so-called war on terror, it is disturbingly clear that the attacks of 9/11 were the result of an immoral U.S. foreign policy and that the government’s inability to prevent the attacks represents a massive and inexcusable failure. Nonetheless, faith in government reached epidemic levels in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead of wholesale ...

Spotsy High a Prison

by Thomas L. Johnson September 1, 2004

How can we speak of democracy or freedom when from the very beginning of life we mold the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? … How can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom? — Maria Montessori, Education for a New World Two Spotsylvania High School students have been very ...

America’s Socialized Health Care

by Lawrence D. Wilson September 1, 2004

Health-care systems in most developed nations are in financial trouble. Health benefits are being cut back because of exploding costs. Degenerative illnesses such as diabetes and cancer are at epidemic levels in spite of new drugs and treatments. While doctors, politicians, and insurers blame each other, they rarely mention the real problem. Skyrocketing costs are due to the structure of ...